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KLUV-HD1, can it be fixed?

J

JRZFM100

I installed an HD radio in my truck some time ago... in 2010. Luckily, my radio has a defeat button to force the receiver into analog... sort of like forcing an analog radio into mono. Thank God for that feature. I've kept the radio in 'forced analog' almost since the day it was installed.

In searching for new HD programming, I set the radio to auto-blend to HD so I can listen to KDMX-HD2 ("Sunny").

In comparing HD-1's, I have come to notice after some time that KLUV-HD1 has tremendous amounts of digital artifacts, wherein KLUV-HD-2 sounds much, much cleaner than its counterpart.

Could somebody (if indeed there is someone else with an HD radio) do an A - B comparison of KLUV HD1 vs HD2 and confirm that KLUV-HD-1 has egregious digital artifacts, which are abundantly more apparent than their HD-2?

I'm kinda wondering why KLUV-HD1 would sound magnitudes worse than their HD-2. Perhaps this is intentional, to give the HD-2 better quality? This problem has been noticeable for some time now, I've just come to find it unbearable. I love the top 4 at 4....

Please Mr. CBS Radio, clean up that HD-1 !

Thanks.
 
As an HD Radio user, I'm not really bothered by it. KLUV's sister station KVIL 103.7 HD1 does the same thing. My guess is from their HD Broadcasting antennas.

You can contact the staff of CBS Radio and ask them about the HD sound quality on both KLUV and KVIL.
 
Interesting... I will check out KVIL to see.

For sure, this is a problem for KLUV: KLUV-HD1 is sooo grungy that it is almost un-listenable in HD1 mode. It is a tune out factor for me. The station sounds much better in plain old analog. And, for emphasis, their HD2 does not have similarly noticeable artifacts.

I'd prefer not to call CBS ... this is the best forum for getting the problem noticed.

The fact that so many people don't have, and/or choose not to listen in HD is the key as to why such things go unnoticed.

I am lucky to have a car radio with defeatable HD - it's the reason I choose the particular head unit I did. (Kenwood Excelon series).
 
JRZ... I'm the program director of KLUV, and do not experience this on any of my five HD radios. One is in-car, one is a portable (think Walkman), and the other three are stationary table-top units.

The HD power is much lower than the analog, perhaps that's a factor. What part of the metro are you generally listening in?

I'll forward your comments to our engineers and see what they find.

Thanks for letting us know...and thanks for listening. Glad you enjoy the countdown.
 
Peter, Thank you for your reply.

I don't think this is a location issue and/or something specific to my radio (but it could be an issue with the Kenwood radio hardware, I don't have another receiver). I'm going to try another receiver to see if that makes a difference.

Let me check out another receiver first and if the problem is duplicated, I'd be happy to drive to the CBS HQ and point out what I am hearing. I am using a top of the line Kenwood mobile head unit.

Totally unrelated ... I just submitted an app for P/T on-air via the CBS website (it only took 3 hours to complete), so you could grab my email address from the system and we could chat directly regarding the HD. I'm also happy to give you or your engineering staff a call.

Let me find another HD radio in a store display (if I can) and re-post my findings.

Best,

JRZ...
 
Okay, we have a consensus regarding KLUV HD-1.

After visiting a few car stereo stores in Arlington to listen to KLUV HD-1 and perform an A - B comparison of HD-1 quality versus their analog, not only was the problem clearly noticeable on 3 different radios beyond my personal vehicle radio, but I also polled the the store personnel at multiple car stereo locations as to their opinions.

After pointing out what I perceive as 'shrill-ness' on the HD-1, basically that the analog sounds better or cleaner than HD-1 (in the presence band), the store employees who gave KLUV a critical listen all agreed with my assessment unanimously.

So it seems that the perception of the HD-1 being shrill is not limited to my particular radio.

Note that all of the radio hardware tested was Kenwood brand; Alpine HD hardware was not available for comparison.

And also note that the receiver's ability to switch from analog to digital was most helpful in making the analysis and spotting the difference -- made for a good comparison, as a flip of a button enabled a quick A-B comparison.

Peter, I'm gonna have to give you a call on the phone to discuss...
 
Here is a new thought on KLUV HD-1.

Is it possible that this is NOT a problem with the HD-1 harware itself (the HD exciter), but rather a problem with the audio processor that precedes KLUV's HD-1 input?

...perhaps the undesirable aural artifacts are being generated in the KLUV main broadcast transmission processor (Optimod, Omnia, whatever it is) and that the HD encoding is particularly susceptible to these artifacts which are in fact originating and coming out of the audio processor and NOT the HD-1 exciter?

Could be something simple as a sample rate conflict or clock timing between the digital processor and digital HD exciter. Or some other problem that originates in the processing.

There is some reason that KLUV HD-2 is unaffected by this problem, and this is important to understand.

Perhaps they could take the KLUV HD-2 processor and put it on HD-1 (visa-versa for the HD-2 side) to see if the problem follows the audio processor swap? If the problem persists on HD-1 after the swap, the processor is then ruled out as the culprit -- and it is indeed an exciter issue; if the problem follows the processor and is aurally apparent on HD-2, then it is the processor for sure.
 
This weekend, CBS Radio has fixed both KLUV's and KVIL's HD1 signals. It seems they adjusted the audio processors to where they don't have the grainy hissy sound anymore. Not that it bothers me, I just thought I would give y'all an update.
 
Not sure if I am just imagining things, but I listened to KLUV on Sunday and it seemed to me like their processing was a little less dense. Seemed like they rolled back the compression a bit. If this indeed what they did, I like it!

R
 
PeterZ said:
JRZ... I'm the program director of KLUV, and do not experience this on any of my five HD radios. One is in-car, one is a portable (think Walkman), and the other three are stationary table-top units.

The HD power is much lower than the analog, perhaps that's a factor. What part of the metro are you generally listening in?

I'll forward your comments to our engineers and see what they find.

Thanks for letting us know...and thanks for listening. Glad you enjoy the countdown.
Click to expand...

I usually have pretty reliable KLUV HD reception here in Houston (Cypress location - outdoor yagi and Sony XDR-F1HD). Occasionally a rim shot 98.5 or 98.7 in Victoria causes KLUV to drop out. KLUV HD-2 has more 50's than the two HD-2 oldies outlets here.
 
The only technical issue at this time is that both KLUV and KVIL HD signals go offline at around 7PM until the next morning (around the same time, KHKS 106.1 Kiss FM's analog signal degrades at night as if the speakers were muffled somewhat. However, their HD signal is fine). It's been happening since the day the HD signals were fixed.
 
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